Episode 487: Three Hour End of the Year Extravaganza

It’s the last Gaming Podcast episode of 2018, and it’s three hours long! Well, it’s to make up for the fact we won’t be doing one next week. There are only two news items, but the entire bulk of the episode is our Game Awards for 2017, and we took a different tack than most sites and podcasts by inventing our own Awards Categories!

The news we do discuss include:

  • Soulcalibur 6 finally brings the tale of swords and souls to PC
  • The Witcher 3 Xbox One X update could add support for HDR displays

We also discussed the game we’re looking forward to the most in 2018 — let us know which one you are interested in!

0 thoughts on “Episode 487: Three Hour End of the Year Extravaganza”

  1. Hi guys.
    Thanks for this big long episode. I really enjoyed it, i like long ones …. you get more from the same source 🙂
    I hope all of you had a nice Christmas and a good start in the new year.
    The games i am waiting for in 2018 are:
    Last of us 2
    Bloodstained
    Magic The Gathering – Arena
    Nu no kuni 2
    Dead stranding (or maybe 2019?)
    Seasons of heaven
    Mega man 11
    Soul Calibur 6

    Magic the Gathering Arena is “only” a card game, and is nearly the same game as already available as MTGO, but it has a different look, more like Hearthstone and i am totally in to card games 🙂
    Most of the titles are also not “new” but i really hope that these new parts of the series (can i call it that way, even if its only the second title?) are as good, as the ones before.
    I really like your podcast and hope you will do this for a long time in the future 🙂
    Greetings from Germany.
    Ralf

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The news includes:

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  • Nintendo Switch sales near 20m, down slightly on last year
  • Playground Games staffs up for the rumored Fable reboot

Let us know what you think.

PlayStation 3’s Wireless Keyboard AttachmentPlayStation 3’s Wireless Keyboard Attachment

This is a prototype of the keypadSony’s done it, they’ve announced a wireless keyboard adapter to plug onto the stock PlayStation 3 controller. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of this, Microsoft pushed out a keyboard for their Xbox 360 controller last year to provide faster chat abilities and, overall, smooth the interface when needing to type.

Now, Sony’s following up with a few more advancements, “the wireless keyboard also features a touchpad mode to allow for mouse input. David Reeves, president of SCEE, said that this touchpad control mode may be used in future game development.” (kotaku)

Is there any chance our next-generation consoles will be more “PC like” out of the box? With these complex user interfaces featuring web browsers, online marketplaces and areas to enter your credit card information (and addresses) you’re really heading towards needing this type of interface. Now, they’re all starting to include chat and messenger services making it more important… if it catches on.

Perhaps the next console hitting the market will come with a keyboard as an in-the-box solution. Please note, the above image is Sony’s prototype image.

Xbox 360 Silver Accounts, Free XBL Cross-Platform GamingXbox 360 Silver Accounts, Free XBL Cross-Platform Gaming

Microsoft has announced they’ll be giving Xbox Live silver accounts access to play some multi-player cross-platform games for free until the fall update. Recently, Microsoft announced free online play with Games for Windows titles, effectively giving PC gamers “gold accounts” to play online.

Most people agree the move to give gold subscriptions to PC gamers was done because PC gamers don’t care to play Games for Windows games online if they have to pay for it. The culture of PC gaming is much different than console gaming on XBL, gamers expect the online experience at no cost; they’re already paying an ISP for network access, paying for a match-making system with a yearly subscription is not desired.

Console gamers don’t have a choice, buying the 360 experience arrives with simple to play games (no drivers, no installs) but limited online choices: pay or go away. Now, silver members will get a little taste of network play, along side PC gamers in the cross-platform Games for Windows titles.

“Supported cross-platform titles include Universe at War, Shadowrun, and Lost Planet: Colonies Edition.” (gamespot)

We question the intention here… is this as a good faith move or are they wetting people’s appitite for XBL so they’ll want to upgrade to gold in the fall? Or, maybe there are some logistical reasons to doing this in the Xbox Live infrastructure to prepare for upgrades where making it free solves a few of their internal upgrade paths and, as a side effect, gives gamers some games to play.

Of course, we’ve seen few people playing Shadowrun or Lost Planet lately. Maybe this will re-popularize a few older titles as well.